This invention relates to automatic call distributor systems, and in particular to a method of re-routing an incoming call from a gate or group of agents to which the call is originally assigned.
Overflow and diversion services are important features of automatic call distributor systems. Overflow is particularly useful to re-route incoming calls which would ordinarily go to one "gate" or group of agents, when this gate becomes too busy. This type of operation is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,452 to Oehring et al. The method used in the latter patent is to overflow calls, when the oldest call in queue to be serviced by a particular gate has been there longer than a pre-selected period. Diversion is useful, for example, when a gate is out of service, for example, during hours when agents are off duty.
It is often useful to re-route calls by overflow or diversion to an associated automatic all distributor system. Various methods have been employed to accomplish this, sometimes using special signalling between the two systems and generally employing dedicated trunks between the two systems or other special trunking arrangements. A problem arises when a user has two automatic call distributor systems of different manufacturers, which do not use the same inter-system signalling. Another problem occurs when there is no direct connection between the two systems; they can only communicate by means of a telephone network using telephone codes. The method of the present invention deals with these problems.